MoonPath Press Authors
Anita K. Boyle Bellingham, WA
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This inaugural MoonPath chapbook by Bellingham, Washington poet and artist Anita K. Boyle thoroughly embodies the exquisite quality of voice our press envisions. What the Alder Told Me is a collection of wise, funny, thought-provoking poems composed of taut, effervescent language, quiet strength, quirky surprise, and unflagging passion. Flowing with natural imagery, as in "paintings with infinitesimal feathers" and "the rhythm of horses chewing hay," Boyle's breathtaking observations captivate. And Boyle’s unparalleled Weltanschauung is evidenced everywhere, as in the section head where she informs us "Seagulls are either sitting or flying some other place to sit." In the poem “Autumn Count,” we are apprised, "One counts on the ones who rise," and here readers can count on this rousing, incomparable verse for a transformational experience.
Reading Dates
Joseph Green Longview, WA
That Thread Still Connecting Us
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This new book by Joseph Green reminds me of the “handyman” quilts my grandmother used to make.
Her genius lay in finding just the right pieces from old jeans, shirts, dresses, blankets, and arranging
them in extraordinary order, carefully sewn, so that the whole and the parts were both something new.
Green knows precisely what threads to use, where to tug, and how hard. These are, ultimately, poems of
redemption, forgiveness, understanding, the scraps of a life saved up, puzzled over, and
put to use, finally, with love and care.
-- Samuel Green, Inaugural Poet Laureate, Washington State
Interview with Joseph Green in The Daily News, Longview WA
Reading Dates
- February 3, 2012, Open Books, Seattle
- February 7, 2012, WordFest, Longview
- February 15, 2012 Olympia Poetry NetworkTraditions Cafe, Olympia
- March 6, 2012 Northwest Voices: Workshop at Longview Community College, and a reading at the Longview Public Library
- March 24, 2012 Words & Music, Vaughn, WA
- April 4, 2012 Village Books, Bellingham, WA
- April 12, 2012 Words & Wine in Key Center, WA
- May 25, 2012 Spring Arts Festival, workshop and reading, Lower Columbia College, Longview, WA
- May 31, 2012 Wenatchee Valley College, Wenatchi Hall, Rm. 2105, 1:00 to 2:00 pm, Reading and Workshop, Wenatchee, WA. Free.
- July 14, 2012 Lucy's Books Astoria, OR
- August 15, 2012 Mountain Writers Series: Lynnell Edwards & Joseph Green, at The Press Club (2621 SE Clinton, Portland) 7:30 PM. .
Michael Magee Tacoma, WA
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This second MoonPath chapbook by Tacoma, Washington poet and teacher Michael Magee exemplifies the finely wrought emotional yet deeply intelligent verse our press celebrates. Magee’s voice is sure, succinct and intrepidly sincere. Cinders of My Better Angels illuminates our ordinary lives, depicting how illness makes us not less ourselves, but more so. In this incisive collection, direct, smart, darkly humorous poetry mines the gems of our fragile mortality with courageous, resolute spirit. Through Magee’s superb mastery of craft, the speaker of the poems and the readers become as one, all of us united under the same moon’s watchful eye, afflicted yet determined, ailing yet healing, “hoping for rescue to come along / in the shape of a period.” And as readers, we are moved and fortified by making intimate contact with the world of Magee’s Better Angels.
Reading Dates
- Saturday, May 12, 2012. Noon. With Lana Hechtman Ayers. Fischer Pavilion Rooftop, Seattle Center, Seattle, WA (free)
Victor David Sandiego Seattle, WA
The Strange & Beautiful Life of Daniel Raskovich
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Victor David Sandiego’s The Strange and Beautiful Life of Daniel Raskovich, an imagined biography of an odd everyman character, is darkly funny and strangely poignant. Sandiego offers a frank take on contemporary society with verse that is clean, clear and direct, and tantalizing enough to keep us wanting more. Episode after bizarre episode leaves the reader feeling off-balance, hopping on one leg (the good one) like Daniel, but perhaps this is the precise vantage one needs to view our lives more candidly. The starkly lovely, sometimes mysterious, graphical images throughout from photographer Ethan Hahn provide visual texture and figurative subtext to the Raskovich tale. As alarming or reassuring as it may seem, Sandiego’s collection reveals that there is a little bit or quite a lot of Daniel in every one of us.
